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| Reports yesterday evening |
After the balloon event I still had the IC-706 connected for VHF/UHF. And since
Paul PA0K efforts with PE1BVQ and his success with FT8 on 2m were inspiring I asked PE1BVQ for a 2m FT8 sked yesterday evening. Unfortenately I only have my vertical W2000 which is not really a DX antenna, the distance between Hans and me is about 170km. So I had my doubts...But the sked went surprisingly well. Hans using a X300 vertical and about 85W, I was using 50W from the IC-706. Signals on FT8 were +00db which is very strong. I listened to the audio and was shure we could try in SSB. So we made a QSY to 144.310 USB to see if we could hear each other. I did receive Hans very well but he didn't receive me. Switching to his Kenwood TS-790 he was able to just get my signal report and he gave me a signal report back so even on SSB the contact has been made. I was really surprised my VHF system works so well although I have a lot of loss (3dB) because of several coax cables, a switch, PL259 connectors and a lightning surpressor. It seems the height and free sight does the trick...
